Will helping HRI hurt Cajundome?

A bill intended to help fund restoration efforts at Lafayette's historic Holy Rosary Institute, while preserving funding to the Cajundome and the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Center, was not as well-received as its authors may have hoped.

It is a case of good intentions on all sides that will most likely come down to hard choices when the bill reaches the Senate floor.

Greg Davis, executive director of the Cajundome, said the Cajundome Commission voted Monday to oppose H.B. 420, which would divert part of the city's share of the hotel-motel tax, the Cajundome's chief funding source, to Holy Rosary. It takes too much of the Cajundome's future revenues, Davis said.

The bill passed the House Thursday and will now move to the Senate for debate.

The bill seeks to give Holy Rosary Redevelopment $200,000 a year to cover construction costs.

Established in 1913, Holy Rosary Institute was a Catholic boarding school that provided quality education to African Americans from across the country. The school has fallen into disrepair since it closed in 1993.

We believe Holy Rosary Institute's place in the history of this community makes it worthy of preservation.

So do many people, including Davis, who attended HRI through the eighth grade - but not, he said, at the expense of the Cajundome's budget.

Each year, money collected from Lafayette for the state's hotel-motel tax goes into the Lafayette Parish Visitor Enterprise Fund .

LCVC receives $200,000 each year . The bulk of the money goes to the Cajundome. After the $1 million bond repayment for building the Cajundome Convention and Visitors Center has been paid, the remainder goes toward maintenance of the two facilities.

The revenue from the hotel-motel tax is expected to grow about $300,000 a year and Holy Rosary's $200,000 share is intended to come from that increase, with any funds remaining going to the Cajundome.

To ensure that the Cajundome is not left with less than the $1.8 million it kept for maintenance this year, state Rep. Joel Robideaux, R-Lafayette, added a requirement that the fund must contain $2,808,716 before any money is given to HRI.

But, there are two problems, he said.

First, the full projected $300,000 increase had already been factored into the Cajundome budget .

Second, the figure Robideaux's office used is incorrect, he said. Last year, the fund contained about $3 million - not a total of 2.8 million. LCVC got its $200,000. The Cajundome got $2.8 million, out of which it made its $1 million bond repayment and had $1.8 million left for maintenance.

The question is more than philosophical: Will helping to preserve a precious piece of Lafayette's history eventually harm its opportunities for economic growth?

That is something the state Senate must now figure out.

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Will helping HRI hurt Cajundome?

A bill intended to help fund restoration efforts at Lafayette's historic Holy Rosary Institute, while preserving funding to the Cajundome and the Lafayette Convention and Visitors Center, was not as